I was born and raised in Venezuela for seventeen years. A country that was built by immigrants, a country that is composed by the mixture of Africans, Europeans, and Indigenous people, a country where the majority of its population is café con leche, where racism is not a big problem, but classism destroys every single part of the meaning of collectivism. I am from a country where people have different accents and native speakers seem not to care about, or at least that is what I thought.
I moved out of my country to the United States—another nation built by immigrants but different in particular ways. First, Americans are obsessed with race. I remember people asking me about my mix, but I could not understand, and then I realized that from my mom’s side, my grandfather was black, and my grandmother was white, and quite the opposite to my dad’s side. I have been living in the U.S. for six years now, and I cannot still accept the fact that when I ask someone, “Where are you from?” they respond to me, “I am from any particular country” and then I ask another question, and they just tell “Oh no, I was born in Chicago, but my parents are from this particular country”. Big difference from my country, where people only respond that I am from Venezuela; even immigrants consider Venezuela their home.
Second, the school system in Venezuela teaches us that there are only six continents; in fact, America is not a country; it is a continent. After six years living in the United States, I have been accepting that people from the United States are called Americans, but while I am writing this, I am not completely sure if that is correct or if I am being against my principles of my country. But what principles? It has never been said before that calling “something” will affect any citizenship in particular.
Third, I realized that the country I was born and raised in was composed of immigrants in a deeper way, perhaps because I am an immigrant now. I have been experiencing what they experience; I have been feeling the way they feel. I did not care about them until I moved out. Furthermore, I realized that I am now one of them.
Fourth, traditions and facts that I see as normal and perhaps good in a way I noticed now that they are not necessarily normal or good, and the only reason I notice it is that I am no longer exposed to that nation full of those traditions and facts.
For these reasons, I want to state that I am now part of two societies that I love and despise at the same time. There are so many things that I do not understand about the U.S., but at the same time, there are things that I appreciate about this society. In Venezuela I was born and raised in a way that I admire, but there are a lot of things that we as a society can improve.
